


swing batter batter swing

by emblems



Series: SASO2017 [10]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Baseball, Character Study, Gen, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-06
Updated: 2017-09-06
Packaged: 2018-12-24 19:51:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12019800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emblems/pseuds/emblems
Summary: Oikawa leans against the edge of the door. "I want you to know something," he says. "You don't pick up the catcher's mitt halfheartedly. You don't wear it half-heartedly."It's not just the gear that's heavy.





	swing batter batter swing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [inelegantly (Lir)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lir/gifts).



> written for saso 2017, bonus round four

The day Kageyama Tobio picks up a catcher's mitt, Oikawa feels his center of balance shift.  
  
He watches, carefully, studiously, tells himself there's no harm in his junior trying it out before he settles on something different—it often happens, someone getting it in their head they'd be a good fit before realizing the position isn't flashy enough (and that with Oikawa around they're unlikely to get play time) and they move on to something different.   
  
But then coach puts him in the bullpen.  
  
Then he puts him in with the relief pitcher at the end of a practice game when they're five points up, and Oikawa watches with hands clenched around the gate in front of the dugout.  
  
Iwaizumi's reassurances—"Coach is just testing the waters, trying something new"—fall on deaf ears as Kageyama manages to get a swinging strikeout to end the game.  
  
"You know that was their worst batter at the end, right?" Iwaizumi asks him as they pack up.  
  
He schools his features into a bright smile, directs it right at Iwaizumi. "I'm fine, Iwa-chan, stop fussing!"  
  
When he finds Kageyama in the practice barn late that night, after everyone's left, he watches Tobio's swing for a few minutes.  
  
Oikawa will always maintain that he was the first to get a sense for the depth of Tobio's potential—the extent of it. He wouldn't be shaken up over a non-threat, after all, and the ownership of that knowledge is something like a comfort.  
  
Knowing it, at least, means he can prepare himself.  
  
He steps into the light, and Tobio notices immediately, going still for a moment before he drops his stance, bat held slack at his side.   
  
Oikawa leans against the edge of the door. "I want you to know something," he says. "You don't pick up the catcher's mitt halfheartedly. You don't wear it half-heartedly."  
  
 _It's not just the gear that's heavy._  
  
Tobio blinks up at him with those blue, blue eyes, and Oikawa scoffs. "Don't waste anyone's time if you're not going to put everything into it, Tobio-chan."  
  
He leaves without another word.  
  
Three years later, he watches Tobio from the dugout during a practice game, wearing Seijou mint to Tobio's Karasuno's black.   
  
Just like last time, Iwaizumi is next to him, watching just as closely as Oikawa.  
  
Just like last time, Kageyama calls his pitcher—Asahi Azumane, supposedly one of the most timid and inconsistent pitchers in the prefecture—through an inning without a single hit.   
  
On the gate in front of him, Oikawa's knuckles go white.


End file.
